


She Who Watches Over Thunder and Terror

by FujinoLover



Category: Dominion (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-21
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-05-02 15:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5253830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujinoLover/pseuds/FujinoLover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Uriel had lived long enough to know that courses changed and plans revised. She just had to wing it, sometimes in literal sense while other times it wasn't as easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Who Watches Over Thunder and Terror

**Author's Note:**

  * For [illusionofwill](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=illusionofwill).



The first time Uriel saw Evelyn, she didn’t notice her.

 

Winters were harsh after war cut down electricity. While the spreading diseases that came with it didn’t particularly bother Uriel, the plane did. War had depleted the number of planes—most crashed the day Gabriel brought war upon humanity. She wasn’t all interested in machinery, but such beauty in the invention did intrigue her. Thus when one landed near her nest, she flew out to see it by her own eyes.

 

It was Evelyn’s mother, Kali, who immediately had her entire attention. She always had a certain fondness for strong female leaders. Like a moth drawn to light, Uriel was drawn to Kali.

 

Evelyn, however, was entirely aware of Uriel’s presence.

 

There was a flu outbreak in the small community of what used to be San Francisco. Evelyn had just grown out of her awkward teenager phase; her body finally caught up with her mind and it granted her more freedom. For the first time since angels came down to possess humans, she was allowed to help her parents in their benevolent missions outside La Jolla.

 

Their plane would attract some eight-balls, her father, Rohit, had warned her. She was to stay inside with her mother and the rest of their medical team while the security team fought them off. Evelyn put on a brave face, wringing her hands together as the hoarse shouts and gunfire went on outside. It was the closest she ever had with the eight-balls since the beginning of the extermination war four years ago.

 

No lower angels had come down to possess human again since that day, but Evelyn still had her fear. She always chose to sleep on the farthest corner of the room, curled under the protection of her blanket even though it didn’t help casting off the bad dreams that plagued her sleep. She couldn’t erase the memories of her neighbors screaming, ambling down the street as angels took over their bodies. Their eyes a dark abyss, black vein popped out of eerily pale skin, and teeth sharpened into uneven rows of fangs. It was the beginning of nightmare—one that was still ongoing.

 

When the noise stopped and the door hissed open and Rohit—worn out, but alive and grinning—poked his head inside, she couldn’t help but bolt out of her seat and tackle him in a hug. Kali didn’t join in the family embrace, only tucking Evelyn’s bang that had slipped out of her ponytail as she walked to them. The flinch that the gesture earned was instinctive. Evelyn hadn’t meant to react that way, but Kali retracted her hand and gave her daughter a pained smile before she moved past them.

 

Evelyn understood that there was something wrong with her mother. The things she saw that weren’t there (which, after the whole angels-possessing-humans didn’t sound as crazy anymore, but Evelyn didn’t dare to dwell on such thoughts) and the abuse she did to her when it got particularly bad, the ER visits and police sirens and the court’s mandatory confinement in mental hospital—it would take more than a war to forget. She squeezed her father one more time before following him outside, her hand in his.

 

San Francisco was exactly as Evelyn had envisioned, vacant of life and ruined by war. She was careful not to glance at the dead eight-balls surrounding the plane, they were once humans too. Her attention was instantly grabbed by a shadow hovering over an abandoned three-story apartment building nearby. Evelyn sucked in a deep breath when she saw a lean figure—female, long blonde hair rustled by the wind, and more importantly, a pair of majestic black wings on her back. An angel. Evelyn was gripped by fear and couldn’t look away while the angel landed smoothly on the roof. She snapped back only after the angel retracted her wings.

 

Evelyn tugged at Rohit’s hand with urgency. “Dad, did you see that?” she asked, pointing at the direction of the roof, where the angel was nowhere to be seen.

 

Rohit had followed her line of sight and saw nothing unusual. His daughter’s face fell. He smiled at her, kissing the top of her head—she was getting tall, soon he wouldn’t be able to do so anymore—and murmured something about her being too excited for her first mission before he led them to where Kali was.

 

Evelyn feared that she was becoming like her mother.

 

* * *

 

Kali died as a hero in San Francisco, but it was Rohit’s death a year later that changed everything. After the hell she went through, Evelyn decided to end their charitable mission. She focused on fortifying their settlement and strengthening their people. Helena, she named their city of women, in honor of the last airplane they had—the same one her father died trying to save. She then naturally ascended as the queen of Helena’s monarchy government system, having the loyalty and admiration of the women she had saved and led back to their city.

 

As the queen, Evelyn resided on the Immaculata Parish Church at the very heart of what used to be University of San Diego’s campus complex. The once house of God was now had its chapel changed to be the throne room where she held meetings and the tower removed of its bell became her bedchamber. Angels weren’t the only being partial to high places. Evelyn too desired the same. That way Helena was to be the last thing she saw before slept and the first when she roused.

 

The celebration of her coronation took place a week after they finished the building the last portion of wall on the east side. It lasted well through the night. When Evelyn finally retired to her residence, she had an unexpected guest waiting for her. It was the angel she saw in San Francisco two years ago.

 

“I’m Uriel,” the angel introduced herself, smiling at the obvious terror passing through Evelyn’s face for a split second. “I’ve been watching you since San Francisco, Evelyn of Helena. Your ascension to power is indeed to be celebrated. I came bearing gift.”

 

“What would that be?” Evelyn asked, unwavering.

 

The thirty-five miles trek from east San Diego, where the plane crashed, might have hardened her. Yet among the seven archangels God had created, it was the first time for her to face one in person. Uriel looked very much like a human, disturbingly so. Evelyn refrained from alerting the guards downstairs. If an archangel, one dressed like a warrior of heaven ready to wreck havoc on earth, desired to burn down Helena, she would have done so without as much as a warning.

 

Evelyn hadn’t heard of the archangels beside Gabriel and Michael, thus her curiosity greatly influenced her decision of not aggravating Uriel with threats. She questioned her hasty decision when Uriel came forward and drawn her sword. Evelyn felt for the gun she kept tucked on the sash of her dress, calculating what a lead bullet might do to harm an archangel and came to a bitter answer— _nothing_. Still better than not warning her people, but then her line of thought was cut off abruptly when Uriel kneeled in front of her, presenting the sword.

 

“My sword is yours.”

 

Though cautious, Evelyn took it by the hilt. She tested its weight and studied the unusual blue gleam of its empyrean steel blade. She wondered if with the weapon she could behead Uriel, who was still kneeling in front of her, with a single blow. And if she could, what would she gain from doing so. The wrath of the rest of the archangels upon the growing Helena wasn’t at all desirable. Regardless of her true intention, Uriel was more useful alive. At least for the moment.

 

“You may rise, Archangel Uriel.” Once Uriel stood to her full height, Evelyn handed the weapon back to its owner. Siding with an archangel was just another extra length she had to go to assure the survival of her city. “You shall be Helena’s sword and shield, in discreet.”

 

Uriel grinned. She hadn’t expected any less coming from the young queen.

 

* * *

 

They didn’t fall in love, at least not right away. Evelyn—now posing as Arika, the elusive Queen Evelyn’s favorite consort—was wary of trusting an archangel, let alone letting one inside the walls of Helena and roaming so close to herself, but she couldn’t help it. Uriel possessed a powerful mind, one only her words held more power over. It was soaked with centuries of knowledge and understandings and memories and Arika was weak against it.

 

It was Uriel who helped her overcoming her persistent fear of the possessed. She showed her how to submit them. She told her the strange desire they had for certain items, specifically the belongings of the person they inhabited and the life they had stolen. The same method Arika then used to help Claire getting rid of David Whele in the future.

 

It was Uriel who introduced her to Raphael. Uriel’s twin couldn’t look any more different than her sister was even if she tried, with her dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. She mentored Arika in honing her intuition and exercising her thought process to compliment it. She also held her sword against Arika’s neck and threatened to kill her if she dared to betray Uriel like Cleopatra did.

 

It was Uriel who taught her of the annual sea ceremony to ensure the health of their progeny. Of sending their dead to the sea—so eight-balls couldn’t claim the bodies, so _Lucifer_ would.

 

It was also Uriel who told her about the oldest archangel. God’s first born was nothing but pile of bones and flesh hidden by his sisters under the ground of Mallory. The confessions and sacrifice from the little town had granted them the protection of Uriel’s fire—she was, after all, the Angel of Repentance—and in return, Lucifer would translate the markings for her. Raphael’s healing, Helena’s dead, and the sacrifices from Mallory could do no more. He needed the Chosen One to heal fully and she needed his help to defeat Gabriel and Michael.

 

When they finally fell in love and acted on it, it had taken an entire decade since they met and Helena was dying.

 

* * *

 

With brilliant scientists and engineers residing in Helena, the city didn’t lack the ability to build their own nuclear reactor. They would have done so, if the queen wished, but Evelyn was against such idea. Aside from the vulnerability it would present to the city, should an attack befall Helena, she was adamant in keeping the earth clean. Much like the lush gardens growing upon most of the city, wind turbines stood tall amongst the buildings and solar panels covered the roofs. The fuel traded from New Delphi was reserved only for vehicles, especially the air fleet.

 

However, due to part of the long-term plan to bring peace included bombing Gabriel’s eyrie—it might also kill him in the process, but Arika wasn’t hopeful—they needed Vega. More than just the capability to produce a catastrophic bomb, Arika wanted the city itself. Mother earth was claiming her land back. With rain and storm ruining the source of power and food, the people of Helena was powerless against it.

 

Jeep coming back to Vega was the beginning Uriel had waited for years. It was finally time to make a move. The invitation David Whele sent for Arika to see one of his factories was the perfect opening for her to travel to Vega and bring Roan behind its wall without raising suspicion. The higher angel loyal to Gabriel, posing as a child and was sent to spy on Helena, would be the catalyst to a series of chain reaction.

 

In chaos, the Chosen One rose.

 

Uriel had lived long enough to know that courses changed and plans revised. She just had to wing it, sometimes in literal sense while other times it wasn't as easy. The idea of spiriting Claire and the unborn child—and thus, the Chosen One—to Helena went down the drain as time progressed and not one had been made regarding the translation of the markings.

 

Unlike Gabriel, she didn’t frustrate over Alex. He was clueless of his own gift and it wasn’t like she actually needed him to decipher the tattoo in the first place. She used the time to draw the many changes of the markings and honing a new skill she learned from her brother. Controlling eight-balls was disgusting, but she wasn’t above controlling higher angels. Janeck was her practice target, as he was the perfect candidate amongst her brother’s loyal followers to deliver the unfortunate news of her ‘demise’.

 

Playing dead was her last minute decision, one she hadn’t told Arika about. It would propel her brothers forward, together or apart. They loved each other too much it would be their undoing. If it didn’t manage to weaken them down, then she still had Mallory. Michael would have to pay for cheating on its sacrificial system, but it would be a while before payment was due. For now, she had New Delphi and Julian, another one who heard Lucifer’s voice, to watch over.

 

Her wings remained silent as she landed on the canopy of green just outside New Delphi. She perched on a thick branch of a tall tree, watching her twin brothers conversed. She didn’t need to tune in her sharp hearing to know what Gabriel was saying. It bruised her ego to see him accepting her ‘death’ as it was—he didn’t even try to retrieve her supposedly-dead body and preserve it in amber—but it wasn’t like she wasn’t used to such treatment. At least Michael did refuse to believe it at first. She chuckled when the old hotheaded Michael emerged and punched Gabriel. They got in a small brawl and then miraculously forgot about her.

 

For them, she was the weak little sister who was driven by her zealous sentiment for beauties. She was no different than the earth itself—something they fought to claim their ownership over—and she was more than happy to stop playing the part.

 

* * *

 

Arika had left for Helena for a few days. It had been far too long since she was home and another storm had hit the city in her absence. It toppled over their last functioning wind turbine and destroyed a couple of greenhouses in the process. Despite the grim happening, she missed her city dearly. She missed Uriel, too. There was no news of her immortal lover since the bombing. A small part of her continued to gnaw, while the rest insisted on trusting Uriel. It wasn’t the first time for them to be apart for a long period of time, without news whatsoever. Still, Arika went home with aching heart.

 

There had been no sign of Uriel. Those who were in the close circle of the queen and aware of Uriel’s true self had not seen her for even longer than they hadn’t seen Arika. The only comfort she had was when she noticed the roll of parchment placed undisturbed upon the bed in the her bedchamber.

 

Uriel had left one of her drawings of the markings behind. Arika wasn’t much interested in the translation scribbled upon its back as she was with the drawing itself. She was familiar with Uriel’s artwork—the way she stroked down the paper with charcoal and the pressure she put underneath each line driven by raw passion. Uriel used her hand to draw, to play the instruments, to dance, to mold—to create beauty with such ardor and elegance, not unlike when she traced her skin during their lovemaking. And Arika missed that, too.

 

* * *

 

“‘An old friend who outlived her usefulness’?”

 

Arika stopped tracing the lines of the drawing. Daria had left some time ago and it was back to spread over the table. From the corner of her eyes, she watched Uriel’s wings vanished into her back. Despite the obvious journey she had taken, not a single blonde lock was out of place and Arika envied the perfection in which Uriel was created with. The thought of such heavenly creature belonging to her always made her heart swell with joy.

 

“But not a dead one,” Arika answered eventually, joining Uriel on the balcony. “I would never get rid of you, would I?”

 

Uriel chuckled. “You may try.”

 

“I did.” Arika nodded her assent. She indeed did try on numerous occasions. In fact, there was time when Uriel encouraged her to take her out, to test how far immortality would stick on her being without Father’s presence. Those were simpler times that felt like an entire lifetime ago. “Were you hurt, by the bombing?”

 

The air had shifted. Uriel had seen that look on Arika’s face numerous times before. The lines deepened as she grew up, along with the amount of responsibilities she shouldered and the dead she carried on her person. Uriel closed the gap between them, one hand warming Arika’s wind-swept cheek. She hated the vulnerability she found on those beautiful brown eyes.

 

“It was my ego that got bruised from being bombed to oblivion by my own consort.” Uriel smirked, raising a brow teasingly. It earned her a smile from Arika, one that she traced with her thumb. “They ripped apart our bomber.”

 

“It’s a worthy sacrifice. It further assured Claire of my loyalty to Vega and herself.”

 

Uriel nodded. “Alex survived the bombing too. He’s making his way to New Delphi with Noma.”

 

“And your brothers?”

 

“They believe that I’m dead.” Uriel snickered. “They follow Alex. I don’t believe Julian will be able to steal one of their bodies, but his scheme will slow them down. You have time to fuel this civil war, Claire’s request for reinforcement from Helena is imminent. Let the men of Vega die to make place for our women.”

 

Every piece fit in, just as they had planned.

 

“I meant it,” Arika broke the silence seconds later. “You’re foolishly obsessed with the Chosen One. He is just a man.”

 

“A man who bears the markings from my Father. His skin is the key to end this war.”

 

Arika did not care. She never truly cared for Saviorism or the writings on Alex’s body or God Herself. Life on Earth went on, with or without Her. It was pointless to hope that Her return would miraculously ended the war. Human made their own choices and she chose to end the war, all in her own strength. Uriel did not share the view, but it was amendable because they had the same goal.

 

“A useless key not knowing the lock he can open.”

 

Before Uriel could retort, Arika marked the end of their conversation by retreating back into her room—the room that reeked of another woman. They had an open relationship, a mutual understanding that sometimes sex was necessary—that it was only work and nothing else. Uriel did not mind, but her heightened senses made it hard to ignore and Arika knew she wouldn’t follow her inside. Tonight their reunion would not involve sating the passion of flesh.

 

Uriel left in a flurry of wind and feathers.

 

* * *

 

Raphael had another spotty prophecy. Gabriel took a surprising turn when Julian used the amphora of darkness on him. The punishment befitted the mistake he did for starting the war, even Lucifer had agreed. He was supposed to either break down or defeat the darkness—none of them expected him to contain it. Crippled by its effect, he released the amphora upon Vega, where Arika was.

 

When Uriel heard the news, her wings immediately sprung out and stretched in their entire massive length.

 

 _Stay, sister_ , Lucifer’s voice rang inside her mind.

 

She stilled, but only for a split second. Rejection was loud coming from her lips. She flapped her wings, ready to take off to the sky. She was familiar with the way the fifth amphora worked all too well. How it brought out darkness from within, manifested in the form of beautiful dreams or terrifying nightmares, and all ended up in death. Knowing Arika—knowing how heavily her intuition relied on visions, Uriel only dared to imagine her fear of becoming a mindless eight-ball manifested in the illusion. It would drive her mad, enough to take her own life.

 

 _Evelyn is strong. Trust her. Trust the Chosen One_ , said Lucifer again. _You have to bring these people away before Gabriel and Michael arrive. Protect them, dear sister._

 

He was, of course, right. Her feelings had always been the flaw of her existence, but since Father vanished she could no longer afford of being weak. Reluctantly, she retracted her wings. Casting one last glance at the direction of Vega, Uriel wished the best for Arika before she herded the people of Mallory to where Raphael was waiting.

 

When Michael struck a deal with Lucifer, he didn’t have a choice but to pay the debt he owed him. The power of Uriel’s fire combined with Raphael’s healing saved Gabriel from darkness. The price of it was between Lucifer and Raphael. Uriel didn’t wait for Noma to bring Alex. Once the twin brothers left and the people of Mallory was back in the safety of their antfarm, she wasted no time to fly back home to Helena.

 

It was night still. Chill biting on her skin and froze her wings, but she didn’t slow down, not even for a second. The sky was clear of its usual fog after being washed away by the rain earlier. From afar, the city of women illuminated like a flock of firefly in a warm summer night. Worsened weather had brought more cloudy days in a year and inhibited the power sources. Electricity was reserved for the heater system, so the citizen were forced to go back to the old way of burning candles and animals fat to light up the night. It didn’t lessen Helena’s beauty nonetheless.

 

Unlike her usual habit of circling around the city twice before landing, Uriel went straight to the queen’s residence. The helicopters resting on top of the college building offered little to diminish her worry as she flew by it. Her heart would only rest when she saw Arika, alive and unharmed, with her own eyes.

 

She landed on the small terrace of the queen’s bedchamber, boots splashing the remnants puddles of rainwater. Inside, the fireplace installed since the tower turned into Evelyn’s suite was alight. Standing in front of it was Arika, dressed in a thick robe yet still had her arms wrapped tightly around herself. The fire dancing on her eyes as she continued to stare at nothing, unaware of her lover’s arrival.

 

Uriel halted momentarily after shutting the glass door behind her. Her hearing picked up another breathing inside the room and discovered the small blonde head peeking from underneath the cover. The child continued to snore softly despite the attention bestowed upon her.

 

“She was a child of Vega,” Arika supplied for the questioning look Uriel sported.

 

She had met Uriel halfway. Her brown eyes no longer vacant of life, instead they shined with unshed tears. Uriel didn’t need to be told everything; she understood the fate that had befallen Vega and its citizens. Without saying a word, she gathered Arika into her arms and let the tears warm up her skin. Daria, Claire, David—those weren’t death Arika inflicted, but she would carry them all the same. So she wept for them. In the protective cocoon of Uriel’s arms and wings, she mourned for the loss of Vega and the bleak future of Helena.

 


End file.
